Myra Donnelly-Gay decided to use Airbnb for the first time to book an apartment in San Francisco — but the price for this choice was an expensive one. "I got a reply back from the host and she said that this apartment was unavailable and was going under renovations at the time," Donnelly-Gay told CBC News. But the host said another apartment was available instead.

Since the link the host shared looked just like Airbnb's website (it had the logo and everything!), Donnelly-Gay proceeded and filled in the dates she wanted to rent the apartment for apartment. Then, the host sent instructions to pay with an e-transfer to a bank in Ecuador. Although this should have been a red flag, Donnelly-Gay asked her friends about this odd request, and they said it's not uncommon for rentals to expect money upfront and explained the apartment might be owned by someone in another country — so she proceeded.

Donnelly-Gay sent the $3,700 fee to the bank and received a confirmation afterwards. "It was exactly the same. It was the same website, apparently the same logo, with all the same details on it. The same look. Even at the bottom — all of the same features on it, and when you went into the logo, it took you to the real Airbnb site. So there was no way that I could figure [it] out. I'm not a professional, but it was well, well done," she says.

It wasn't until Donnelly-Gay received an email from the real Airbnb that she realized she'd been scammed. The email alerted her to stop communicating with the fake host and reminded her to only use the Airbnb platform for bookings. "The only way scams can happen, no matter how real or fake the emails look, is if they convince you to talk to them off of the platform," Airbnb spokesman Nick Shapiro told CBC News.

However, Donnell-Gay had no idea she could only work through Airbnb, and said there should be more of a warning on Airbnb's website. But Shapiro said there are plenty of alerts warning you to stay on Airbnb for your bookings. "As soon as you click on that listing, you see messages telling you to stay on the site, so whether you visit the site 20 times or the first time, if you ever want to communicate with a host or request to book, you get warnings and [pop-ups] because it is important. As long as people stay on the site, they can't get scammed."

The scammer has since been blocked from the website and even though Donnelly-Gay doesn't expect to get her money back, she wanted to tell her story so other people are aware of this danger. So remember, no matter what you don't, don't ever leave Airbnb when communicating with or paying a potential host.